


Tuning In

by seleneghost



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types, Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: Canon Compliant, Fluff, Hope you all enjoy, M/M, Music, i try really hard to make these two as in character as i can, they're my faves and they're dorks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-26
Updated: 2018-02-26
Packaged: 2019-03-24 04:47:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,595
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13803723
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/seleneghost/pseuds/seleneghost
Summary: In which Nico gets Will's iPod and starts to listen to the music he's missed out on.(Short, may be added on to later)





	Tuning In

On the first night after leaving the infirmary, Nico had a nightmare.

It wasn't the worst he's ever had, but he remembered feeling like the air surrounding him was tightening, making his skin boil and twist. He felt himself choke every time he went to take a breath, until there wasn't any oxygen left for him to take in. That's when he woke up, heart pounding, hair clinging to his forehead from sweat. He grasped at his heart, forcing himself to take deep breaths. _Thump, thump._

At least he knew he hadn't faded away.

Nico knew that trying to fall back asleep after a nightmare was pointless, especially when that nightmare involved Tartarus. He sat up and continued taking deep breaths, closing his eyes. When he opened them, he took in the sight of his cabin. The window was half-open, letting in the crisp nighttime air. A breeze ruffled the curtains and Nico shuddered. To the side, the shrine to Hades glistened despite standing in total darkness. The clock on the nightstand read 6:19 AM.

Without a second thought, Nico stood up and carefully walked to the door. Some of the early risers at Camp Half-Blood went for jogs around 7, so Nico knew it wouldn't look too suspicious if he were to be outside then. Nevertheless, he tiptoed as he exited his cabin, creeping in the shadows around the back. His black pajama pants dragged in the dewy grass.

Sure, Nico could've shadow-traveled, but that would leave him feeling even more drained. Plus, he'd have to explain it to Will.

Will, who had spent nearly every moment of his day with Nico for an entire week in the infirmary. Will, who never let Nico spend a moment in agonizing silence, to which Nico was grateful. Will, who, despite burning himself out day after day, always marched into the infirmary with a huge smile on his face.

Yeah, Nico didn't want to disappoint Will. Especially not after having just left the infirmary.

He made his way down to the lake, down to his favorite spot. On particularly hard-to-handle nights, Nico always ended up at the same place - under the willow tree, gazing blankly at the shimmering water. He almost tripped over his baggy pajamas and muttered a curse under his breath, but he sat down regardless, curling up into himself. The sky was a dark navy; no signs of a sunrise just yet. 

Nico hadn't been fond of silence ever since he was trapped in a jar in the Underworld. If there wasn't at least a small detail to focus on at all times, he felt his stomach churn. That was why he enjoyed the slight noises of the lake, the cicadas chiming in the distance, the leaves rustling above him. That was also why he didn't mind Will's passionate rambling in the infirmary. But he wasn't about to think about that.

He tucked his knees closer to him, missing his favorite aviator jacket to keep him warm. Gods, he really needed a new coat. Instead of facing his thoughts, Nico decided to lean back against the tree and close his eyes. Surely the sunrise would be coming soon.

Some time later, Nico was startled by a brush of cool air. He opened his eyes to find that the sky had lightened a bit, the sun glowing a vibrant orange in the distance. The camp remained quiet behind him, but Nico figured it would soon be filled with the chattering of the "morning people." He definitely couldn't relate. How could people wake up feeling cheerful and well-rested?

No time to contemplate that. The sound of leaves crunching made Nico jolt up and turn immediately in a defensive stance.

Will Solace stood before him, both hands in the air. One hand held an MP3 player, the attached headphones hanging around his neck. He looked wide awake, but the dark circles under his eyes told a different story.

"Whoa!" Will whispered, lowering his hands. "It's just me."

_It's just me._ He always spoke so casually, like he and Nico had been close for years. Nico's heartbeat sped up, but he ignored it and glared at Will, stepping back. "What are you doing here?"

Will's gaze shifted to the sunrise, then back to Nico. "I like to watch the sun from over here some mornings. You know, when I'm not working or trying to sleep in." He eyed Nico up and down as if he were checking him for injuries, and Nico suddenly felt self-conscious in his loose-fitting black PJs. "What are  _you_ doing here? Is my nickname finally starting to suit you?"

Nico scowled. "I told you to stop calling me that."

"Whatever, Sunshine." Will stepped forward and smiled. He had on the standard orange camp tee, but it was matched with blue lounge pants. His hair was ruffled unevenly like he had just rolled out of bed. Nico figured he wasn't going away now, so he sat back down under the tree with a sigh. Will joined him immediately.

"You didn't answer my question," the son of Apollo said as he plopped down on the ground. He began to wrap his headphones around the MP3 player. Nico still didn't know how campers managed to have those things. Weren't they the same thing as cell phones?

"Can't I watch the sunrise too?" Nico answered, crossing his arms. He knew Will wouldn't buy that for a second.

Will rolled his eyes. "I don't buy that for a second. Since you were  _such_ a morning person the last few days."

Nico had slept through 2.5 out of 3 of his original required days in the infirmary. Once he awoke, Will ordered him to spend at least two days more. Nico slept through most of those as well. That's how he ended up staying there for a week. Not that he had minded much.

"Fine," Nico muttered. His eyes wandered out to the water; the waves had begun to pick up, the sun illuminating them a little more. "I... couldn't sleep. So I walked out here."

Instead of pestering him, Will just looked over quickly and nodded. "Yeah, I get that."

"You're not going to bug me about getting a full night's rest?"

"I'm not really one to talk, Sunshine."

Nico finally allowed himself to look over at Will, even moving his hair out of his eyes to see clearly. Will was staring at the water as if Apollo himself was going to descend from the sun and walk across the lake. Despite his usual cheery smile, his other features suggested the opposite - his shoulders hung, his skin seemed dull, and his eyes were dark. Nico had seen a lot of Will’s face the last week, and he kept finding himself getting distracted by the patch of freckles sprinkled across the healer’s nose. Will, of course, chose that moment to look over at Nico and shoot him a small smile, making Nico’s face redden.

"Oh," was all he said in response as he stared back out at the lake. The two sat quietly for a moment. Will's hands fiddled with the headphones he had wrapped neatly around the MP3 player.

"We still need to start your musical education, you know," Will broke the silence, trying to nudge Nico with his elbow. "I’ve got an entire iPod here full of music, plus a cabin of willing participants."

Will's siblings had been playing music in the infirmary one of the days Nico was there. In fact, the music – which was some modern pop ballad at the time – had woken Nico up from his two day-long nap. Will had rushed over to check on him; upon doing so, he forced his siblings to shut off the music.

"You didn't have to do that," Nico had mumbled to him, still in a sleepy daze.

Will had shrugged. "Trust me, they'd irritate you eventually." He had taken Nico's pulse, and then promised him, "But don't worry, you've got seventy years of music to catch up on someday, Sunshine. Mark my words."

Now, Nico stared at the MP3 player in Will's hands. He had never used an MP3 player before.

"Okay," he answered plainly.

"What kind of music do you like?"

Nico had never been asked that before. Sure, he had very fuzzy, vague memories of him and Bianca listening to jazz music in the Lotus Casino. He remembered his mother humming soft lullabies to him and his sister when they couldn’t sleep. In recent years, he remembered Percy playing classic rock ballads to pester Annabeth. Nico had enjoyed some of those songs, but never admitted it. He also remembered Bianca singing a beautiful slow song to him – half in Italian, half in English – just days before their lives had been turned upside down. He pushed that memory away.

"I don't know," he told Will honestly. "Probably different types."

Will smiled. "That's good." He gestured towards himself in a dramatic half-bow. "We Apollo kids love a good variety of musical talents."

Nico snorted at the half-bow thing and found himself relaxing, leaning closer to Will. "What kind of music do you like?" he asked back.

Despite having just asked Nico this, Will seemed taken aback. "Uh. Lots of kinds. I... well, I usually make a lot of playlists."

"What's that?"

Will laughed, causing Nico's stomach to flip-flop again. "You haven't used an iPod yet, have you? Here." He started to move towards Nico, then paused. "Can I...?"

Nico had clarified early on to Will that he wasn’t fond of other people touching him without permission, or without Nico initiating it first. Instead of being creeped out or disgusted like others had seemed, Will just shrugged. However, Nico noticed, Will was a very touchy person. He, without realizing, was always leaning against others, touching their shoulders, or embracing them in friendly hugs. Even though Nico sometimes jumped or tensed up when Will had touched him in the infirmary, he didn’t mean to. For whatever reason, being around the healer made Nico feel... well, healed. Warm. Bright. He didn’t mind being close to Will.

So when Will asked permission to scoot a few inches closer to Nico, he just nodded and watched as Will positioned himself so the two were touching shoulders. He handed Nico the iPod. It was a dark purple rectangle with a tiny screen and a few small buttons. In Nico’s long, bony hand, it looked like a robotic snack.

Nico must've been shotting the iPod a funny look, because Will began to crack up.

"Here, look," he chuckled as he grabbed it back from Nico's hands. "This is how you turn it on." He switched a button upward on top of the device, and the screen glowed white. "To switch through playlists, you press this button. If you want to play it, you press the center button. To skip the song, you press this one again."

Simple enough, Nico thought. He watched the screen as Will scrolled through "playlists."

"Playlists are basically just like... cassette tapes. A bunch of songs that play one after the other. You can name the playlist after a certain theme. You can make one for anything you want," Will continued. Nico loved when Will started rambling about things. He got a sparkle in his eye, and he just couldn’t stop smiling as he talked.

Nico's eyes scanned Will’s playlists. He had to have _hundreds_ of those things. He noticed “rock music,” “for the infirmary,” “Kayla’s favorites,” “capture the flag days,” and tons more. Finally, his eyes rested on “my favorite songs,” which sat at the top of the list.

Nico nodded his head at the iPod. "What are your favorite songs?"

Will stopped and flushed. "Oh, I've got plenty of favorites." He paused for a second, thinking, before he suddenly handed the iPod back to Nico. "Take it."

"What?"

"Take it. You can listen to whatever you want. I mean, you've gotta give it back to me soon, because I'll miss that thing. But you can keep it today. It'll make it easier for you."

The son of Hades turned the iPod over in his hands. "Are you sure?"

"I mean, you're not planning on losing it in the Underworld or anything, right?"

Nico's mouth tugged up in a small smile. "No."

"Then, yeah." Will brought his knees up to his chest and hugged them contently. He looked back out at the horizon, Nico following his eyes. "Hey, look at that."

The sun had risen enough that the lake appeared to be a swirling mix of oranges and pinks. Not a single cloud was in sight; just a clear, multi-colored sky. Will, meanwhile, was beaming, taking in the view entirely. The pair sat in silence until the sun fully rose in the sky and the sounds of campers waking up and heading off to early breakfast surrounded them. Nico wasn’t about to be the first one to move.

Finally, Will stood up, to Nico’s dismay. "I’ve got to get going. Infirmary around 8. Hopefully it’s not too busy." He pointed at Nico’s hands. "Try not to fade away today, Sunshine."

Nico rolled his eyes. "Wasn't planning on it."

Will smirked and turned on his heels, calling over his shoulder, "Enjoy the music!"

-

A few hours later, Nico was  _still_ on the same playlist: Will’s favorite songs.

After saying goodbye to Will that morning, he had headed to breakfast, scrolling through the playlists as he walked. “Jazz tunes,” “campfire jams,” “getting hype,” and “for annoying the cabin” were among Nico’s favorites, judging by the title of course. Seeing the playlists “for bad days” and “sad songs” felt like a punch to the stomach, though.

At breakfast, Nico had picked at a muffin while eyeing the headphones suspiciously. Did he just pop them in his ears, or...?

"Hey." Jason chose that moment to appear out of nowhere and sit next to Nico. He immediately spotted the iPod. "Whoa. Where’d you get that?"

"It's Will's," Nico mumbled, trying to avoid as much teasing as possible. Too early.

"Nice." Jason, surprisingly, did not push the matter. "Catching up on music you've missed?"

"That's the plan." He held up one of the earbuds and avoided meeting Jason's eyes. "Uh, do you just...?"

"Just put them in your ears. They should rest comfortably."

Nico slid them into his ears and plugged the cord into the iPod.

"Wait!" Jason held up his hands frantically. Nico froze. "Make sure the volume's not turned all the way up. You might give yourself a heart attack."

Sure enough, the volume _was_ all the way up. Nico wondered how in Hades Will could listen to things at full volume. Instead of pondering that, however, Nico had simply scrolled up to the “favorite songs” playlist and pressed “shuffle.” The playlist contained five hours worth of songs. _Gods._

The first song to come up was a rock song by a band called ACDC. As soon as it started playing, Nico felt the need to bob his head along to the beat. It was pretty great.

"Enjoy," was all Jason had said, smiling into his breakfast.

Now, Nico sat in his cabin, his back pressed against the wall. He had three more songs until the end of the playlist. Truth be told, he had genuinely enjoyed the majority of the songs Will considered his favorites, which made him happy. Nico found himself relating to the lyrics of many. A few had managed to tug on his heartstrings, reminding him of Hazel, Bianca, and his mother. As the last few songs came to a close, Nico closed out of Will’s playlist and created a new one. He titled it, “Songs Nico enjoyed,” taking a while to figure out how to type on the tiny device. Once he figured it out, he set to work, adding as many songs as he could find that he remembered enjoying. 

He didn’t know how much time had passed since he began making the playlist. While he had been adding songs, however, he had been taking in Will’s “for the infirmary” playlist. Most of the songs were fairly upbeat and hopeful. Nico got lost in the lyrics of one so much that he didn’t even hear Will knocking at his cabin. And, since the volume was turned up and Nico was facing the other way, he didn’t even hear Will _enter_ his cabin. He just felt a warm hand on his shoulder, causing him to leap off the floor instantly.

"What the Styx?!" he yelped, nearly dropping the iPod. "Will!"

Will suppressed a laugh, but he held his hands up in mock surrender. "Hey, I knocked for nearly five minutes! Did you really not hear me?"

"I was listening to your playlist!" Nico ran his hands through his hair, heart racing.

"Sorry, sorry. I should've just waited." Will turned to leave.  _No!_

"No, wait," Nico said, causing Will to turn back right away. "Don't... don't leave. You just threw me off. I can usually sense people’s presence, so it was just... weird for a moment there." He pulled one of the earbuds out of his ears. The other had fallen out when he jumped from the floor. Will stared at him before deciding to, apparently, make himself right at home by sitting on Nico’s bed and grinning.

"My siblings let me out of the infirmary early. For now, at least. So I've got time. Did you listen to anything good?"

"Solace. I've been listening to the same playlist for the last five hours."

"And which one would that be?"

"Your favorite songs one! Gods, how many favorite songs can someone have?"

Will found this amusing. "That’s nothing compared to my siblings! They have several favorite songs playlists." This earned a groan from Nico’s end, causing Will to laugh harder. "Let _them_ be your musical guides sometime. You’ll get a kick out of that."

Nico walked over to sit next to Will. He handed him the iPod silently. 

"You're done with it?" Will frowned, staring at the screen.

"I didn't listen to everything," Nico answered. "But I saved some songs I liked."

He watched as Will went back to the playlists and spotted Nico’s at the top, clicking and scrolling quickly through it. Nico had added about two hours worth of songs, which he didn’t think was that long.

"You made your own," Will stated, dazed. "And you like modern music!"

"Well, what did you think I'd like? 1940s swing music on a loop for hours? You don't even have that much old music on there."

"I'm  _glad_ you don’t want to listen to swing music on a loop, Sunshine." Will held up one of the earbuds and wiggled it in Nico’s face. "You didn’t make it to the rest of my heart and soul, though."

Nico snorted. "Your heart and soul? You're starting to sound like your dad."

"Hey, you'll find a song you like that much, too. Or a band, or a singer. You gotta keep listening!" Will handed Nico one of the earbuds as he popped the other in his right ear. "What were you listening to last?"

"Um, I don't even remember. Something upbeat." Nico hesitantly placed the other earbud in his left ear as Will scooted over to him, his fingers frantically scrolling through the iPod.

"Oh, the Ramones. They're cool. Kayla likes them more, though. I think I had a shirt with their logo on it around somewhere." Will stopped scrolling and settled on a new song. "What are you doing the rest of the day?"

"I was... I was planning on listening to more. And eating dinner."

"Good." Will dramatically flopped down on the bed, taking Nico with him. "We've got work to do."

The song that began to play started with a brief moment of silence. A guitar quickly broke in, strumming something that felt both peaceful and sad. Nico's eyebrows lifted in surprise, and Will glanced over at him.

"This is one of my new favorites," he gushed. He seemed to cut himself off from ranting about the song for much longer, because he lifted a hand, quickly dropped it, and turned his head the other way. Nico closed his eyes. If it was Will's favorite, he wanted to know why.

Soon enough, the song's acoustic calmness had picked up and led into something a bit more upbeat. As the song progressed, it slowed a bit towards the end, transitioning into a beautiful piano part that caught Nico by surprise. The entire thing felt like... an experience. Like he'd never feel the same way again listening to the song. Although the ending was meant to sound happy, Nico felt tears forming in his eyes. It ended abruptly, and Will held his iPod to his face, clicking pause. He looked over at Nico, who was staring at the ceiling, blinking rapidly.

Will didn't ask anything of Nico. He just looked at him for a moment, his face had to read. Nico felt his gaze on him and mentally scolded himself - and his stupid eyes - for betraying him. When he realized Will wasn't going to say anything, he reached up and wiped one of his eyes with his sleeve, still staring at the ceiling.

All Will did was reach down and gently squeeze Nico's hand. Seconds after, he moved on to the next song, which was an upbeat, angry-sounding anthem that snapped Nico back to reality before his heart could process what had just happened.

They missed dinner. They missed the campfire, too.

But that was alright by both of them.

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> This could maybe turn into something later on. For now, that's all, though.  
> I know the ending seems like it just *cuts off* but... yeah, I'll work on more of it sometime.
> 
> I haven't published anything on here since last year, and this is only my second thing on this site. I appreciate any feedback. I really love the PJO fanbase (I've been in it since I was a kid) and I just want to do right by the characters. :)
> 
> The song Will and Nico were listening to actually doesn't exist. I mean, it could apply to a lot of songs, though. 
> 
> I have a couple of ideas for more PJO fics, specifically focused on these two, so keep watching for more!


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